in wondering what this generation of enforced renters are going to do

[mustbetimeforacreamtea]

When they reach retirement and can't afford commercial rents on a pension? What happens then?

[MrsWinnibago]

GooGoo have you ever thought about a barge? We're leaving the UK for Australia...DH is Australian and we have some inheritance coming and a cheap place to rent there....I'd prefer to stay in the UK to be honest...in my heart...but I see no future for us here sadly.

My Mum released the capital on her house so that will be gone when she goes...which is fine...she needed the cash. But I can't rent all my life..we live in a council flat...it's tiny and while we're VERY lucky to have it I don't want to bring up a family here. It's too small.

If it weren't for the Australian move I would save and buy a barge and live on that.

[Degustibusnonestdisputandem]

MrsWinnibago I agree completely! (& hi again!)

[Billygoats]

mijas99 what an awful attitude you hold. If only it were so easy for everyone to save £50 a month. I know many people where this is simply not plausible and they are working flat out for minimum wage.

I agree OP . My DM has worked so hard all her life to pay the bills. She has no savings, does not spend any money on herself and so has no extra to put aside. I worry what the future will hold for her and fear I will either have to stretch to fund her or move her into our spare room of a house we are currently struggling to buy ourselves.

[Degustibusnonestdisputandem]

That's another thing - housing standards for new builds in particular are appalling. Often little more than a cupboard being touted as a 3rd bedroom.

[googoodolly]

X-post.

Not everyone can live with their parents. My parents moved six hours away when I went to university, so it was either give up my life (fiancé and step kids) and go with them, or stay and rent a cheap flat.

The house shares for a couple are the same price as renting a tiny flat around here, so not an option either.

Must be nice to live in a world where you can go and do whatever you want without any ties or restrictions though

[MrsWinnibago]

Degust Hi!

GooGoo that's true about house shares. My nephew is 25 and can't afford to live with his mates even though he works. He has a minimum wage job....he earns pennies!

If he did move out, he'd be eating bloody noodles every day!

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

There should be some trickle down though as the baby boomers die off. Not all their equity will go in care costs. DH and I reckon we can downsize and free up £200,000 or so, to split between our four, to help them with their first properties.

Our current house was part funded by inheritance. You have to spread the money around if you are lucky enough to have some.

[MrsWinnibago]

My DH works full time. I work part time....I don't earn BAD money...but get this...my DD is going to a party tomorrow. I can't afford to get her a new dress so I'm having to MAKE her one!

How's that for managing on two wages!? We live in a low rent council flat...we have SKY and a phone each...(terrible spendthrifts!) we don't drink or go out (EVER) and we STILL can't make ends meet.

[googoodolly]

it's nuts isn't it?!

DP and I both work and earn minimum wage. I do 30h and he does 40h and we just get by every month. New jobs are impossible to come by or they're all zero hour contracts - and I'm not giving up a secure job for one with hours I may not even get!

[MrsWinnibago]

Tinkly but what about those kids who won't be getting fifty grand?

[MrsWinnibago]

GooGoo mad it is! I work for myself and have been looking for some employment instead...unless I want to go 8 miles on my bike to be a dinner lady for two hours a day then I can't seem to find anything!

No way can I afford childcare either...so full time would be unrealistic.

[theworldsend]

My aunt is on pension credit and gets housing benefit to pay for her house in full. She has no private pension at all. It would be a pittance to some people, but she used to be on benefits in the years before she retired so is used to frugal living, and she says she gets a lot more now than she did on income support. She seems to have a reasonable standard of living, it's not actually too different to my other relatives who own their home but have small pensions and who don't have the additional means-tested help she gets (council tax help etc).

[mustbetimeforacreamtea]

Tinkly my DGM spent the last 6 yrs of her life in a home. It took all her equity and some. As we are living longer in care homes this is going to be increasingly commonplace.

[SarcyMare]

there is a simple solution to your concerns, go and read any social history book about old peoples lives pre 1970, when almost everyone rented.

[MaryWestmacott]

Why is anyone surprised that rent costs more than a mortgage? Surely that's the obvious way round, most rental properties are mortgaged, so the landlord has to cover the cost of the mortgage, plus some money for the letting agent fees, maintenance costs (like boiler servicing) and some in reserve for any big repair costs (like a new boiler), plus any profit they want to make.

They are a business after all.

The current renters will continue to rent. Lots of people owning their property outright by retirement is a rather new development. My grandmother didn't, no one in her family had owned houses, it wasn't seen as a crisis, it's only a problem as we base so much around the assumption of ownership of property (including end of life care cost planning). Like now, those who can afford the rent from their income will pay it (be it wages or private pensions), those who can't will get housing benefit.

[JohnnyBarthes]

They'll get housing benefit and as such the transfer of funds from taxes to landlords will continue and those with property other than the home they live in will continue to get richer and richer at the expense of everyone else.

Happy days

[mijas99]

Billygoats - I didn't say that saving would be easy, but it is possible for most people. Saving always means not spending money on something else. How much is Sky nowadays and a smartphone contract? That would go at least half way to meeting the monthly £200 target for a deposit for a £130k house

And if you can't afford that, then their are many properties that are even cheaper in the UK. 1 or 2 bed flats for £60k-£80k. That is the type of property that most people live in here in Spain

But saying that, I do have sympathy. House prices are way too high in the UK in general and in comparison, wages are too low, but then there would be lots of mumsnetters complaining if house prices started falling!

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

Mrs Winnibago Of course you are right: not every kid will get a leg up, a lot will though. I know quite a few people renting or with mortgages on houses they have long out grown while their parents rattle around in a massive family house. We are very lucky DH's Dad took a different path and helped us out.

[JohnnyBarthes]

Mary the concept of btl rent covering a landlord's mortgage plus costs is a fairly new one, or at least on the scale it's at now. It was always going to be a recipe for disaster.

[MaryWestmacott]

Johny - yes, it's only in the last 20 years or so that btl has been so easy for individuals, but other than social housing, most private rentals were by businesses that did use loans and cost more than mortgages on a similar properties. As a child, most of my dad's (insanely huge) family rented, those in social housing had cheap rents, everyone else paid more in private rents than a mortgage would cost- until interest rates went crazy and those renting suddenly were really smug

[Audeca]

mijas99

^Why are renters incapable of saving 13K?

It is £50 per week over 5 years.^

After 5 years have passed in the current housing climate 13k won't be enough for a deposit. Plus, don't forget it's much much easier for a BTLer to get a mortgage than it is a potential first time buyer.

[mijas99]

Audeca - nobody can accurately predict what prices will look like in 5 years time. The market could crash tomorrow

That's not a good reason to not save up for a deposit

100% mortgages are a very bad idea for lots of reasons

[JohnnyBarthes]

It's not the fact that people won't be able to buy that's the issue, really. It's the unafforability of any type of housing that rankles. That and the lack of security, combined with obscene letting agent charges. I believe in Scotland that the latter has been addressed - it's a scandal that it hasn't elsewhere.

[MaryWestmacott]

audeca - I agree it's hard to save if you are on the edge, although it's not 'easier' to get a mortgage as a BTLer unless you've got 25% deposit, that's a lot of money to have saved.

Working class people didn't own property in the past, it's a relatively recent thing that will probably go back to property ownship being for the wealthier, hopefuly that will also mean that as the bulk of voters are renting, we'll get some decent tenants rights. Much more practical than trying to force down house prices or helping people take on massive debts.

[JohnnyBarthes]

mij, what 100% mortgages are these?

100+% mortgages are a thing of the past.